Howard Abikoff

New York University | NYU · Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Objective: Research has demonstrated the effectiveness of interventions to reduce organizational skills deficits and homework problems, including the clinic-based Organizational Skills Training (OST-C) program (Abikoff et al., 2013). In this study, OST-C was adapted for schools as a small-group (Tier 2) intervention delivered by school partners (OS...

Organization, time management, and planning (OTMP) skills are behavioral manifestations of executive functioning linked to academic outcomes. Interventions to improve OTMP skills have shown favorable outcomes. The Children’s Organizational Skills Scale parent and teacher forms (COSS-P, COSS-T) are widely used for assessing OTMP skills, but there is...

Effective organizational skills (e.g., time management, materials management, and task planning) are associated with academic success, yet some children struggle to gain these skills without intervention. While evidence‐based organizational skills interventions for pediatric clinical populations exist, none target organizationally impaired general...

Objective: Behavioral parent training (BPT) is the first line of treatment for preschool-aged children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); however, clinically significant improvements are not universal. In the current study, we employ a person-centered approach to create subgroups of families based on the intersection of multiple...

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder in children, with genetic factors accounting for 75–80% of the phenotypic variance. Recent studies have suggested that ADHD patients might present with atypical central myelination that can persist into adulthood. Given the essential role of sphingolip...

Objective: To estimate long-term stimulant treatment associations on standardized height, weight and BMI trajectories from childhood to adulthood in the Multimodal Treatment Study of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (MTA). Method: Of 579 children with DSM-IV ADHD-Combined Type at baseline (ages 7.0-9.9 years) and 289 classmates (local no...

Previous studies have suggested that children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) may benefit less from behavioral parent training (BPT) if their parents have high levels of ADHD symptoms. We conducted a secondary analysis of data from a randomized controlled trial to test the hypothesis that parental ADHD symptoms reduce the effic...

Background: The Multimodal Treatment Study (MTA) began as a 14-month randomized clinical trial of behavioral and pharmacological treatments of 579 children (7-10 years of age) diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-combined type. It transitioned into an observational long-term follow-up of 515 cases consented for continuati...

Objective: To compare educational, occupational, legal, emotional, substance use disorder, and sexual behavior outcomes in young adults with persistent and desistent attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and a local normative comparison group (LNCG) in the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (MTA). Method: Data we...

Objective: Longitudinal studies of children diagnosed with ADHD report widely ranging ADHD persistence rates in adulthood (5-75%). This study documents how information source (parent vs. self-report), method (rating scale vs. interview), and symptom threshold (DSM vs. norm-based) influence reported ADHD persistence rates in adulthood. Method: Fi...

The present study examined whether the presence of comorbid ODD differentially moderated the outcome of two Behavioral Parent Training (BPT) programs in a sample of preschoolers with ADHD: One designed specifically for ADHD (NFPP: New Forest Parenting Programme) and one designed primarily for ODD (HNC: Helping the Noncompliant Child). In a secondar...

Aim: To determine the prevalence of bipolar disorder (BD) and sub-threshold symptoms in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) through 14 years' follow-up, when participants were between 21-24 years old. Methods: First, we examined rates of BD type I and II diagnoses in youth participating in the NIMH-funded Multimodal Tre...

To describe the long-term psychopharmacological treatment of children first diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as preschoolers. In a systematic, prospective, naturalistic follow-up, 206 (68.0%) of the 303 children who participated in the Preschool ADHD Treatment Study (PATS) were reassessed 3 years (mean age 7.4 years) a...

To examine the association between developmental trajectories of inattention, hyperactivity-impulsivity, and delinquency through childhood and adolescence (ages 8-16) and subsequent binge drinking and marijuana use in early adulthood (age 21). Prospective naturalistic follow-up of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) previo...

This study examines the prevalence and characteristics of services reported by school staff for 543 high school students participating in the 8 year follow-up of the multi-site Multimodal Treatment study of ADHD (MTA). Overall, 51.6% of students with a history of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were receiving services through an Ind...

Background: The 'New Forest Parenting Package' (NFPP), an 8-week home-based intervention for parents of preschoolers with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), fosters constructive parenting to target ADHD-related dysfunctions in attention and impulse control. Although NFPP has improved parent and laboratory measures of ADHD in communit...

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and cannabis use are each associated with specific cognitive deficits. Few studies have investigated the neurocognitive profile of individuals with both an ADHD history and regular cannabis use. The greatest cognitive impairment is expected among ADHD Cannabis Users compared to those with ADHD-only, C...

Objective Results of the NIMH Collaborative Multisite Multimodal Treatment Study of Children With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (MTA) were analyzed to determine whether a double-blind, placebo-controlled methylphenidate (MPH) titration trial identified the best MPH dose for each child with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

To determine long-term effects on substance use and substance use disorder (SUD), up to 8 years after childhood enrollment, of the randomly assigned 14-month treatments in the multisite Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (MTA; n = 436); to test whether medication at follow-up, cumulative psychostimu...

To describe the clinical course of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptom severity and diagnosis from ages 3 to 5 up to 9 to 12 years during a 6-year follow-up after the original Preschool ADHD Treatment Study (PATS). A total of 207 participants (75% male) from the original PATS, assessed at baseline (mean age, 4.4 years, when all...

Objective: The study compared the efficacy of 2 behavioral interventions to ameliorate organization, time management, and planning (OTMP) difficulties in 3rd- to 5th-grade children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Method: In a dual-site randomized controlled trial, 158 children were assigned to organizational skills training...

It is unknown whether prolonged childhood exposure to stimulant medication for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) increases the risk for developing abnormalities in blood pressure or heart rate. The authors examined the association between stimulant medication and blood pressure and heart rate over 10 years. A total of...

The current study investigates the accuracy of self-perceptions of competence among 43 children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ages 6.9-11.9; 37 boys) attending an 8-week empirically supported behavioral summer treatment program. Having inflated self-perceptions about one's competence at the beginning of the summer predicted poorer...

The authors investigated the efficacy of a 12-week manualized meta-cognitive therapy group intervention designed to enhance time management, organization, and planning in adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Eighty-eight clinically referred adults who met DSM-IV criteria for ADHD according to clinical and structured diagnost...

Parent-report of child homework problems was examined as a treatment outcome variable in the MTA-Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Five hundred seventy-nine children ages 7.0 to 9.9 were randomly assigned to either medication management, behavioral treatment, combination treatment, or rout...

Short-term treatment with the meth-ylphenidate transdermal system (MTS) has been well tolerated in several clinical trials in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, the effects of long-term use have not been systematically evaluated. The primary objective of this study was to assess the 12-month tolerability of MTS...

We investigated body image dissatisfaction and bingeing/purging characteristics of bulimia nervosa (BN) in the ongoing prospective follow-up of the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Participants were 337 boys and 95 girls with ADHD and 211 boys and 53 girls forming a local normative compari...

To determine any long-term effects, 6 and 8 years after childhood enrollment, of the randomly assigned 14-month treatments in the NIMH Collaborative Multisite Multimodal Treatment Study of Children With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (MTA; N = 436); to test whether attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptom trajectory through...

The revised new forest parenting programme (NFPP) is an 8-week psychological intervention designed to treat ADHD in preschool children by targeting, amongst other things, both underlying impairments in self-regulation and the quality of mother-child interactions. Forty-one children were randomized to either the revised NFPP or treatment as usual co...

The revised new forest parenting programme (NFPP) is an 8-week psychological intervention designed to treat ADHD in preschool children by targeting, amongst other things, both underlying impairments in self-regulation and the quality of mother–child interactions. Forty-one children were randomized to either the revised NFPP or treatment as usual co...

To evaluate the effects of stimulant medication on organizational, time management, and planning (OTMP) in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and ascertain whether OTMP is normalized with medication. Participants included 19 stimulant-naïve children with ADHD (aged 8-13 years) and impaired OTMP functioning, defined as gre...

Patient perspectives represent an increasingly important focus in clinical trials of medical treatments for pediatric mental health conditions. This paper describes the development and initial testing of a short, easy to complete, condition specific, measure of patients' and their parents' attitudes regarding drugs used for the treatment of their a...

To review the primary and secondary findings from the Multimodal Treatment study of ADHD (MTA) published over the past decade as three sets of articles. In a two-part article-Part I: Executive Summary (without distracting details) and Part II: Supporting Details (with additional background and detail required by the complexity of the MTA)-we addres...

To review and provide details about the primary and secondary findings from the Multimodal Treatment study of ADHD (MTA) published during the past decade as three sets of articles. In the second of a two part article, we provide additional background and detail required by the complexity of the MTA to address confusion and controversy about the fin...

Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder often have varying needs for coverage of their symptoms throughout the day. The objectives of this study were to determine the efficacy, duration of action, and safety of methylphenidate transdermal system worn for variable times by children (ages 6-12) diagnosed with ADHD. Methylphenidate dose...

This case study illustrates a behavioral treatment of "Peter," a 4-year-old male with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder. Multiple evidence-based treatment procedures were implemented, affording the opportunity to explore issues common to the clinical application of empirically supported interventions....

The aim of this study was to describe the clinical presentation of preschoolers diagnosed with moderate to severe attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) recruited for the multisite Preschool ADHD Treatment Study (PATS). The diagnosis and evaluation process will also be described. A comprehensive multidimensional, multi-informant assessment...

The aim of this study was to examine whether demographic or pretreatment clinical and social characteristics influenced the response to methylphenidate (MPH) in the Preschoolers with ADHD Treatment Study (PATS). Exploratory moderator analyses were conducted on the efficacy data from the PATS 5-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled six-site titrati...

To assess parent-teacher concordance on ratings of DSM-IV symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in a sample of preschool children referred for an ADHD treatment study. Parent and teacher symptom ratings were compared for 452 children aged 3-5 years. Agreement was calculated using Pearson correlations, Cohen's kappa, and condit...

This study examines one-, two-, and three-factor models of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) using the existing 18 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder, 4th edition (DSM-IV) symptoms in a sample of symptomatic preschoolers. Parent and/or teacher ratings of DSM-IV symptoms were obtained for 532 children (aged 3-5.5) who...

In children diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and their parents, who were participants of the Preschool ADHD Treatment Study (PATS), we assessed the effect of source of DNA (from buccal or blood cells) on the genotyping success rate and allele percentages for the five polymorphisms in three candidate genes (DAT1, DRD4,...

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of methylphenidate (MPH) on functional outcomes, including children's social skills, classroom behavior, emotional status, and parenting stress, during the 4-week, double-blind placebo controlled phase of the Preschoolers with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Treatment Study (PATS)...

The aim of this study was to examine immediate-release methylphenidate effectiveness during the 10-month open-label continuation phase of the Preschoolers with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Treatment Study (PATS). One hundred and forty preschoolers with ADHD, who had improved with acute immediate-release methylphenidate (IR-MPH) t...

To evaluate two hypotheses: that self-selection bias contributed to lack of medication advantage at the 36-month assessment of the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children With ADHD (MTA) and that overall improvement over time obscured treatment effects in subgroups with different outcome trajectories. Propensity score analyses, using baseline charac...

To compare delinquent behavior and early substance use between the children in the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children With ADHD (MTA; N = 487) and those in a local normative comparison group (n = 272) at 24 and 36 months postrandomization and to test whether these outcomes were predicted by the randomly assigned treatments and subsequent self-s...

In the intent-to-treat analysis of the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children With ADHD (MTA), the effects of medication management (MedMgt), behavior therapy (Beh), their combination (Comb), and usual community care (CC) differed at 14 and 24 months due to superiority of treatments that used the MTA medication algorithm (Comb+MedMgt) over those th...

To evaluate the hypothesis of stimulant medication effect on physical growth in the follow-up phase of the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children With ADHD. Naturalistic subgroups were established based on patterns of treatment with stimulant medication at baseline, 14-, 24-, and 36-month assessments: not medicated (n = 65), newly medicated (n = 88...

To describe the rationale and design of the Preschool ADHD Treatment Study (PATS). PATS was a National Institutes of Mental Health-funded, multicenter, randomized, efficacy trial designed to evaluate the short-term (5 weeks) efficacy and long-term (40 weeks) safety of methylphenidate (MPH) in preschoolers with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disord...

The authors explored genetic moderators of symptom reduction and side effects in methylphenidate-treated preschool-age children diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). DNA was isolated from 81 subjects in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover methylphenidate titration. Parents and teachers completed ADHD symptom scal...

To report on the safety and tolerability of methylphenidate (MPH) 3- to 5-year-old children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) during 1 year of treatment. Exactly 183 children (3-5 years old) entered a treatment study of MPH, consisting of a 1-week open-label lead-in (n=183); a 5-week placebo-controlled, double-blind phase (n=165)...

The Preschool ADHD Treatment Study (PATS) was a NIMH-funded, six-center, randomized, controlled trial to determine the efficacy and safety of immediate-release methylphenidate (MPH-IR), given t.i.d. to children ages 3 to 5.5 years with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The 8-phase, 70-week PATS protocol included two double-blind, con...

To investigate growth of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the Preschool ADHD Treatment Study (PATS) before and after initiation of treatment with methylphenidate at titrated doses (average, 14.2 mg/day) administered three times daily, 7 days/week for asymptotically equal to1 year. The heights and weights of 140 child...

The present study examined treatment outcomes for objectively measured parenting behavior in the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Five hundred seventy-nine ethnically and socioeconomically diverse children with ADHD-combined type (ages 7.0-9.9 years) and their parent(s) were recruited at 6...

While studies have increasingly investigated deficits in reaction time (RT) and RT variability in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), few studies have examined the effects of stimulant medication on these important neuropsychological outcome measures. 316 children who participated in the Multimodal Treatment Study of Chil...

The past decade witnessed an increased use of stimulants for the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in preschool children. However, the reluctance of parents of preschoolers to place their young children on stimulants (S. H. Kollins, 2004) coupled with the paucity of information regarding the long-term effects of stimulant...

The past decade witnessed an increased use of stimulants for the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in preschool children. However, the reluctance of parents of preschoolers to place their young children on stimulants (S. H. Kollins, 2004) coupled with the paucity of information regarding the long-term effects of stimulant...

Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD)is associated with a high degree of impairment in social skills, family interaction, and academic functioning. Comorbid ODD is reportedly present in 40% to 70% of children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The goal of this study was to assess the efficacy and safety of mixed amp...

This study evaluates the efficacy, duration of action, and tolerability of methylphenidate transdermal system (MTS) in children with ADHD. Participants were dose optimized over 5 weeks utilizing patch doses of 10, 16, 20, and 27 mg applied in the morning and worn for 9 hours. Following optimization, 80 participants were randomized to 1 week of MTS...

There are large differences between nations in the diagnosis and management of children with marked impulsiveness and inattention. The differences extend to the names and definitions of disorder and the extent to which medication should be used. This paper uses data from a large randomized clinical trial of pharmacological and psychosocial treatmen...

Introduction: Reports document children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and irritability, aggression or mood lability. Whether these additional symptoms represent severe ADHD, juvenile bipolar disorder, or other comorbidities is often unclear and has both diagnostic and treatment implications. We use the Cantwell modifications...

Comorbid conditions in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are frequent and can affect treatment response and life course. From the multimodal treatment study of ADHD (MTA), we examined the persistence or development of conditions other than ADHD, e.g. oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), conduct disorder (CD), anxiety, de...

Significant ethnic differences have been consistently documented on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) teacher rating scales. Whether these ethnic differences result from a teacher rating bias or reflect actual classroom behavior patterns is unknown. Ethnic differences between Caucasian and African American (AA) elementary schoolchildr...

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is often accompanied by clinically significant anxiety, but few empirical data guide treatment of children meeting full DSM-IV criteria for ADHD and anxiety disorders (ADHD/ANX). This study examined the efficacy of sequential pharmacotherapy for ADHD/ANX children. Children, age 6 to 17 years, with ADH...

This preliminary study examined intervention effects of a universal prevention program offered by classroom teachers to public elementary school students. The Unique Minds School Program (M.B. Stern, 1999) is a teacher-led program designed to promote cognitive-social-emotional (CSE) skills, including student self-efficacy, problem solving, social-e...

Peer-assessed outcomes were examined at the end of treatment (14 months after study entry) for 285 children (226 boys, 59 girls) with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who were rated by their classmates (2,232 classmates total) using peer sociometric procedures. All children with ADHD were participants in the Multimodal Treatment Stud...

To improve the gathering of adverse events (AEs) in pediatric psychopharmacology by examining the value and acceptability of increasingly detailed elicitation methods. Trained clinicians administered the Safety Monitoring Uniform Report Form (SMURF) to 59 parents and outpatients (mean age +/- SD = 11.9 +/- 3.2 years) in treatment, with 36% on stimu...

This study investigates whether low to moderate levels of childhood oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD) behaviors contribute to the development of clinically diagnosed CD in adolescence, in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Participants were 207 White boys (ages 6-12) with ADHD free of conduct...